Gabe Newell
American businessman; co-founder and chief executive of the video game company Valve
| Gabe Newell
| |
|---|---|
| Image | .jpg) Newell at GDC, 2010 |
| Born | 3 November 1962 (Forbes) |
| Nationality | American |
| Residence | Seattle (Forbes) |
| Occupation | Businessman; game developer |
| Known for | Co-founder and CEO of Valve; Steam; Starfish Neuroscience |
| Education | Harvard University (did not graduate) |
Gabe Newell (born 3 November 1962) is an American businessman who co-founded the video game company Valve in 1998 with Mike Harrington and has led it ever since.[1] Valve runs Steam, a digital store for PC games, and faces an antitrust class action brought by game publishers over Steam's commission and pricing policies.[1][2][3] On 11 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Newell 348th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$10.2 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as video games.[1][4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Newell 293rd, at US$11.0 billion.[5]
Microsoft and Valve
Forbes says Newell dropped out of Harvard and was hired by Steve Ballmer as Microsoft's 271st employee. He and his Microsoft colleague Mike Harrington co-founded Valve, based in Bellevue, Washington, in 1998.[1] The company had early success with games such as Half-Life and Portal, developed the Vive virtual reality headset with HTC in 2016, and in 2022 released the hand-held Steam Deck console.[1] Forbes says Steam reached one billion accounts in 2019. Its estimate of Newell's stake has varied: at least a quarter in 2024 and at least half in 2026.[1]
Steam antitrust case
The developer Wolfire Games sued Valve in April 2021, alleging that Valve used Steam's dominance of the PC games market to suppress competition and take an unfairly large cut of sales.[3] On 25 November 2024 the US District Court for the Western District of Washington granted class certification in In re Valve Antitrust Litigation and denied Valve's motion to exclude.[2] The certified class covers everyone who paid Valve a commission on a game sold or used on Steam from 28 January 2017.[3] The plaintiffs' lawyers, Quinn Emanuel, said the class numbered about 30,000 game publishers. They said the case concerned alleged price and content parity policies that inhibited competition from rival platforms, that about US$6–7 billion of games were sold on Steam each year, and that Valve's typical commission was 30%.[6] The allegations had not been tested at trial when the class was certified.[2]
Starfish Neuroscience
Newell has long been interested in brain–computer interfaces; PC Gamer noted that he talked about biometric interfaces as early as 2010.[7] In 2019 he quietly incorporated a brain–computer interface company, Starfish Neuroscience. In May 2025 the company said it expected its first electrophysiology chips in late 2025. It was also working on a precision hyperthermia device to destroy tumours with targeted heat.[8][7]
Political activity
Itemised FEC records for the 2022–2026 cycles list contributions under his name with Valve as employer. They are summarised below as filed.[9]
Across the 4 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$13,860 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were CANTWELL VICTORY 2024 (US$6,600), FRIENDS OF MARIA (US$6,600), ACTBLUE (US$660).[9]
| Cycle | Total (US$, lower bound) | Records | Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $13,860 | 4 | CANTWELL VICTORY 2024 ($6,600); FRIENDS OF MARIA ($6,600); ACTBLUE ($660) |
Wealth history
Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 15 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2012. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.[5][1]
| Year | World's Billionaires rank | Net worth (US$ bn) | Forbes 400 rank | Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 854 | 1.5 | – | – |
| 2013 | 1268 | 1.1 | – | – |
| 2014 | 1372 | 1.2 | – | – |
| 2015 | 1415 | 1.3 | 307 | 2.2 |
| 2016 | 810 | 2.2 | 134 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | 427 | 4.1 | 97 | 5.5 |
| 2018 | 334 | 5.5 | 190 | 3.9 |
| 2019 | 529 | 3.9 | 239 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | 538 | 3.5 | 186 | 4.0 |
| 2021 | 705 | 4.1 | 289 | 3.9 |
| 2022 | 764 | 3.9 | 285 | 3.9 |
| 2023 | 721 | 3.9 | 267 | 4.3 |
| 2024 | 734 | 4.3 | 107 | 9.5 |
| 2025 | 293 | 9.5 | 109 | 11.0 |
| 2026 | 293 | 11.0 | 153 | 10.2 |
International and political links
This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."
Israel (investments, operations, donations, contracts, statements)
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Zionist or pro-Israel organisations and lobbying groups
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Jewish communal charities
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Gulf states
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
China
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Russia
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
India
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Palestinian or Arab causes
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Home government
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Other international links
No documented involvement found in sources checked.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Forbes, Forbes profile record for Gabe Newell (Forbes data feed behind forbes.com/profile/gabe-newell/) Forbes, live record, read 11 November 2026, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 US District Court for the Western District of Washington, In re Valve Antitrust Litigation, No. 2:21-cv-00563-JNW: Order granting class certification (Dkt. 391) CourtListener (RECAP archive), 25 November 2024, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Andy Chalk, The antitrust lawsuit against Steam is now a class action, and that could have big repercussions for Valve PC Gamer, 28 November 2024, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ Forbes, Forbes Real-Time Billionaires data feed Forbes, live; downloaded 11 November 2026 14:34 UTC, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Forbes, Forbes World's Billionaires list data feed, annual editions 2001–2026 (one file per year at this path with the year substituted; all 26 files downloaded and read) Forbes, annual lists; downloaded 20 October 2026, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Quinn Emanuel secures class certification seeking billions in damages for Wolfire Games and a class of game publishers in in Wolfire Games LLC et al. v. Valve Corp (2:21-cv-00563) Quinn Emanuel, 3 December 2024, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Andy Chalk, Gabe Newell co-founded a neuroscience company in 2019 and its first brain chip is expected to ship later this year PC Gamer, 26 May 2025, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ Sean Hollister, Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year The Verge, 23 May 2025, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 U.S. Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC Schedule A (itemised individual contributions) query, contributor name "NEWELL, GABE"; 2026 cycle shown in link, the 2022, 2024 and 2026 cycles were queried together with the same parameters; top 100 records by amount; records filtered by employer/occupation and name, memo entries excluded U.S. Federal Election Commission, data as filed; queried 11 November 2026, accessed 11 November 2026.